Hey @reggaesteem, I want to try something a bit different today. I plan on putting out some regular "discussion posts" to boost engagement here on Reggaesteem.
Today's topic is Coronavirus.
Basically I'm interested to here how everyone is doing at the moment. Particularly in Jamaica, tourism is an important industry. With all the concerns going around, has Jamaica been affected yet? I imagine a lot of travel to Jamaica is from the US, is that slowing down yet? How is the economy placed to handle this? Is the health system ready to cope with a full on outbreak? Is the government handling the situation well? Are people panic buying?
Pretty much, I'm hoping to read in the comments everyone's personal thoughts on the topic, and will be curating the comments section of this post with some irie jahm up-votes.
If you are not in Jamaica, I'd still love to here your thoughts and experiences. What are things like in your country with this?
Here in Australia.
The biggest impact so far has really been with the infamous toilet paper situation. Who knows why, but toilet paper is becoming a drama to the point that people are fighting over it in supermarkets. Supplies are low, and limits have been put on sales.
The government has reacted to the outbreak and bans come in to effect on Monday on large gatherings and so on. Most sporting events from then will be played without any crowds. Tourism is pretty important here to, and that sector is bracing for a major downturn. The Sydney Easter show has been cancelled this year - for the first time due to a health crisis since 1919. The event is a tradition and usually has over 800,000 visitors and generates hundreds of millions of dollars.
For a laugh, I'll leave you with this footage. It is footage from a supermarket fight over toilet paper, and has been commentated on by "Aussie Man Reviews". Aussie Man is a Youtube sensation with regular content in which he usually provides a completely inappropriate (and usually hilarious) commentary on something.
Warning - lots of bad language.
So, feel free everyone to get involved, let me know how things are in your part of the world.
Stay safe everyone,
JK.
The toilet paper thing still befuddles me since COVID-19 is not a gastrointestinal illness. I think a lot of people think everywhere including restaurants, grocery stores and convenience store locations are going to shutdown, or — many people are buying bulk quantities to sell these products online for Uber profits. Either way, it is still crazy to me.
In my home state, mass gatherings (100 people or more) have been cancelled. This includes both indoor and outdoor events. Schools are closed to reduce exposure for children and then potentially passing it on to mom or dad or even the grandparents (the most susceptible and vulnerable population).
College kids are taking advantage of cancelled classes partying their faces off while staff and councils try to incorporate eLearning portals for students.
Flights are being cancelled and prices are dropping. I actually cancelled my flight to JA in June because 1) the prices are plummeting and 2) I’m not even sure the fest is going to take place with everything that has and will continue to transpire
Everyone is going bananas about this. Mass hysteria.
Friend @conradsuperb
What university students do in your country is the same thing they do here in Colombia and in my country Venezuela, it is something very particular to young people, they tend to ignore these situations and prevent, until it is too late.
What you say, I have been thinking about the Jahmfestival, I do not know what is the real situation of the Corona virus in Jamaica, but unfortunately this as it goes for a few more months.
Of course, I imagine you'll be waiting for the time to make decisions about
The hysteria here is mostly fairly confined still, but the TP issue has become a self fullfiling cycle. Because a small number of people panicked early on, the shelves got wiped out. As normal people see this, and the supply chain can't keep up, many people are starting to run low now and the problem just feeds itself.
Aus is just starting to put bans on crowds - 500 + they are saying at the moment. Only 1 or 2 schools closed to date.
I work in a supermarket in the online dept, and we are incredibly busy. Lots of people seem to be swapping to ordering online so they don't have to come in to the store. Sports events are starting to get cancelled and travel companies are starting to cut costs/services.
I think that governments around the world are pleased to have something to blame the economic crash on now rather than admit this crash was coming anyway because of their mismanagement - but that's another issue completely.
What state of the US are in? Is there cases in your home town yet, or is it still in the biggest cities mainly?
Good to see that some things never change!
Hello dear friend, greetings from Venezuela here in my country, you have already declared the first two official cases that entered the country from Spain. here the situation is quite tense because the economy here is unstable, there are many crowded people in supermarkets buying a lot of food, there are many merchants taking advantage of this situation to increase prices, the dollar is increasing products such as antibacterial gel and alcohol They have exorbitant prices ... it seems unusual to me that a country as developed as Australia fight for toilet paper jeeeeeje is a situation that produces panic I think we should take things with the utmost serenity ...
Utmost serenity would be good :)
Hello lovely, I can imagine this would just be adding another layer of difficulty to an already tough situation for the people of Venezuela. The panic for Toilet paper here is only a small number of people, but now everyone is starting to worry they may run out. We also have shortages of anything antibacterial, but no signs of businesses taking advantage yet.
I haven't heard much news from Venezuela lately - have things improved at all for your country in general? (aside from this new global issue)
@jk6276.jahm
Timely post. Hopefully community will respond,
and educate us to what is happening in their part
of the world.
Me, I went food shopping early yesterday AM.
Around eight. Parking lot at market was full and
there was an unbelievable amount of people.
Mostly older, for it was a work day and thusly
retired people shopping. Had to wait almost an
hour just to check out and pay. Prices remained
the same, so no ripping off the customers.
Needless to say, I stocked up for I am planning
to expose myself to as little contact with the
outside world as possible.
Yeah, I think more engagement type posts are needed around here. I'd rather see a "shit post" with 20 + comments than a crafted and researched post that hardly anyone even reads. Quality posts are great, and definitely needed, but we are a social community and most conversations happen on discord instead of on chain. - Anyway, enough preaching...
A lot of people seem to be doing the same, trying to avoid crowds and shop online. I got emails yesterday from both major Pizza delivery services now offering contactless deliveries. You do your order, pay online, and the deliverer rings you when they drop of the pizzas. you can wait till they are gone before opening the door.
Strange world we are heading into where people are becoming completely fearful of in person contact, and going to hide out from the world. Makes sense to do so, but still isolating.
Hopefully plenty more people will share their experiences, and I'll try to run these style of posts regularly.
I will be looking forward to future posts. Great idea.
We interact here on Reggaesteem and believe it or not the people we follow are closer than you think in regards to how we feel about them and their personal wellbeing. So I would like to hear how they feel regarding this worldwide crisis.
And I agree on posts. I’ve resolved my self to spending less time on posts. Rather have people enjoy a picture and short story.
I kind of feel at times (almost always) that no one is actually reading them. So posts where we can bounce back and forth and communicate as a group is acceptable to me.
There only seems to be less then a dozen or so who even take the time to interact.
You know that @conradsuperb and I
will participate.
You Started The Ball Rolling
s-irie
Hopefully the ball keeps rolling and more people jump on board.
Their is still a place for the posts that take time - your early series of "faces of Jamaica" were some of the most interesting posts I have read on STEEM. And those long form posts should definitely be highly rewarded and the ones filling trending. But yes, quick content and engagement will keep people coming back and form more of a social network and less of a dry content only network without much interaction.
Trending for the best posts - but a lively "latest posts and newsfeed" section.
JK.
@super-irie and you, @jk6276.jahm
They have brought up a topic of conversation about this post, and that is long posts with little or no interaction, particularly I spend up to 3 or 4 hours on making a post, to edit images among other things and when they have 2 or 3 comments it's a lot. That can be frustrating, because then I wonder, does it really deserve it?
But this is not the main topic of conversation, only by reading everyone's contributions, I wanted to give my opinion about it.
No doubt this was a great proposal on your part. For my part, active in this publication.
I agree, and will make a big effort to recognize the really high effort posts here from now on. Your posts are definitely excellent quality, and I'm probably guilty on many occasions of reading them, enjoying them a lot but not letting you know.
Thanks for adding this in as it is a really important point, high effort posts do need to be recognized and I'll do my best to improve in this area.
I know that many times one has the time to write a commentary that expresses what one really thinks about a topic.
But it is certainly important to express something, because I am particularly discouraged if after working so much on a post, not to have any feedback beyond a good gain, which obviously is not bad.
But I know that there are many situations playing against each other nowadays, both on the platform and off it.
Great way to spark some engagement in the community. I respect it. I'd rather see it here than on discord, it gets me every-time that a social media platform depends on a messenger app.
Regarding long form posts, as you said in comments, they have there place and nothing wrong with some short posts as long as they spark engagement and or entertain. Being social is what social media is all about. Again this is a very good initiative to get the community talking, not just about reggae and Jamaica but about us.
In Japan it is business as usual, I am at work as I type this. Schools from elementary to high school are closed until the end of the month. The toilet paper pandemic started here in Japan when a factory worker spread the rumor, it is interesting to see it wave across the world. Japan claims they only have 700-1000 cases but they aren't really testing as they should. A new kit was released by a company here that can test for the virus in 15 minutes (they partnered with a Chinese manufacturer, the stock price of the company mooned) but still, testing is minimal. The vibe is that the numbers are false as the main aim is to go along with the Olympics as planned or have the international planning committee cancel it, that way insurance will cover, if the government cancels, they are on their own. Postponing the event till fall is a no go as it conflicts with the NFL, a very tough situation for Japan. I think they need to push it to next year.
In Jamaica, though I am not there just seeing the news and talking to friends and relatives. There are 10 confirmed cases, many countries have been restricted to travel to Jamaica such as Italy, France, the UK, China, Singapore, Japan +. Planes coming into the island are empty, many cancellations, even Carnival a huge events has been pushed back to October. The government on the other hand is being very proactive and communicating as well as executing swiftly. On the other hand crime and corruption are looking to take advantage. In one situation cases of masks and gloves were stolen from a medical facility and were found at a funeral home, it is said to be politically driven, but that just shows the level of corruption. In my view, the government is prepared and is on point but the economic fall out will put a lot of pressure on a nation that is already under pressure. Many vendors in the tourism sector are glad for the travel restrictions and the measures taking place to control the spread but then they realize the economic impact. Reggae and Dancehall events are also crucial for the survival of many. Event promoters, Djs, dancers, street vendors are in a very tough spot as events are being canceled and permits to keep events are not being issued. Its rough! @miyard should have some good insight into travel and tourism in the Negril area, looking forward to hearing from him.
For me , I am taking it one day at a time being cautious but optimistic.
Yup, I really don't uderstand sometimes why we chat so much on discord when we are a social media blockchain.
I can imagine the government would definitely try to downplay the outbreak there as postponing the Olympics would be enormously expensive.
The vibe I have had regarding Jamaica has been that economic progress was looking quite solid till this. I have seen some stuff on twitter showing a lot of interest in stocks and investing, with a big IPO occurring recently. Tourism is definitely going to be one of the hardest hit industries, I just hope this impact is short lived.
Thanks for the support, I'll try to keep the momentum going here.
Great post, great initiative, great video - made me laugh and squirm at the same time! So far, here in a provincial city in England, the big supermarkets seem to have empty shelves, but the little convenience store that I usually use is managing to keep its shelves stocked.
The Sunday news programmes are talking about giving police powers to arrest people with corona virus who are not self-isolating (apart from the obvious, how would they know)? I think this is going to be really problematic, not least because our police forces are already stretched to the limit. Ideal environment for serious crime to flourish. Our police are also trained to take a particular approach (quite reasonable given the range of incidents they are expected to respond to), but not always the most helpful approach.
There is also talk, but as yet, no definite plan, for over 70s to self-isolate for four months. That is a serious problem with regard to people's mental health and well-being and swapping one public health issue for another ... plus what happens when they all come back into the general population again?
For me, as a higher risk person, I'm starting to plan how I am going to manage my work over the next four months, given that I may be self-isolating for my own protection and, at the same time, co-ordinating a pan-London proposal for £12 million of services to address sexual and domestic violence.
We've had some early consultations within the current providers, and started to consider how we can reduce costs by doing things differently. One of the things that I was going to propose as part of the new service is introducing (and training everyone to use) tele-conferencing for some of our meetings so that women are not traipsing right across London so often. This four month curfew might be a good time to test some ideas and see how they work.
Meanwhile, I've not had a problem with toilet paper supplies and I have considered what I am going to do if none is available. I have a plan :) On another matter entirely, I have an ant infestation in the kitchen and they seem to be completely unentranced by the ant bait stations choc full of poisonous goodness for them to take back to the nest.
I'm for a trending feed that is engaging and diverse, as long as posts are not spamming and scamming, bring value and attract engagement (the number one priority I would think), I'm happy to see it there.
Self-isolating for four months sounds horrible - I really do worry that the "cure" to protect everyone from this virus is going to be far worse than the disease itself. Shuting down cities, and bringing the economy to a grinding halt while everyone is isolated from "in-person" human connections seems overly drastic.
I work in a supermarket here in Australia, in a smallish regional town, and we are progressivly running out of more and more product lines. Now we are cutting services (my department is online and click and collect) - the entire click and collect service has been suspended nationwide. We are shortening trading hours and every day looks like christmas eve with people everywhere, filling up trolleys with what they can.
All this is despite not having a single case of Covid19 in our region.
I really hope you get to see your proposal through to implementation. It sounds like very important work and a much needed (sadly) service. Best wishes for its success.
Good luck with the Ants - whenever we get ants invading here it usually means rain is coming soon. I guess in England it rains all the time so that doesn't really help as an warning to take your umbrella (lol).
Anyway, thanks for sharing how things are in your part of the world, lets hope this epidemic fades into a distant memory soon enough.
JK.
This is what I like, a conversation, a sharing of experiences in the tribe. Great this idea @jk6276.jahm
Let's see, what you say about the paper, what madness, if at some point it can be affected at the gastrointestinal level but it is not the usual. But if the individual behaviors are often complicated to understand, imagine the social behavior, even more difficult.
I am currently in Bogota, and in one week has gone from 3 cases to 22. People are buying a lot of things, food above all, and there is a shortage of masks, and when you get them it is at a price that is up to 6 times what it was 2 weeks ago, the same thing is happening with alcohol.
The economy fell to the floor, which is clothing industry, construction, is stopped, also the theaters are closed until further notice to prevent it from continuing.
By the way, the IXth Reggae Festival, which is to be held this month, has been postponed to November...
Thanks mate.
You are right, human behavior is hard to understand. One thing is for sure however is that panic breeds panic. It's like anything, a few people lead, and then many more follow along. I really think that the panic over this disease will spread far wider and cause more disruption to peoples lives than the actual disease will.
My worry is the economic impact on peoples lives. Yes people are sadly losing their life, and that is terrible, but how many millions of jobs will be lost because of the shutdowns and such.
Here in Suriname, Bouterse just closed the all borders to both inbound and outbound traffic with upcoming elections in an environment of corruption and suspicion. The world is upside down. !giphy corona+virus !trdovoter !BEER
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The world is definitely a messed up place at the moment. It will be interesting to see how different countries come through this crisis. I suspect, as you mentioned on discord, that wealthier countries may fare worse. However I can also imagine that if infections do spread in the poorer nations, that mortality rates may be higher as the health care system is less equipped to cope.
Best wishes, and I hope the election passes without incident and everyone stays safe.
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